Exploring the social and cultural dimensions of early Christianity is academically and theologically challenging and is deeply affecting the way I approach scripture and incorporate its meaning into my life as a Christian.

When I started, I was skeptical whether an online class could replicate what happens
face-to-face in the classroom. My experience is that the online community is just as
tight as the on-campus community.

Jim Wilson reminds us that Easter Sunday is only the beginning of the celebration.

EASTER -- 52 Sundays

Easter A, Color, White

Acts 10:34-43, Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24, Colossians 3:1-4, John 20:1-18

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. … ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ … ‘I have seen the Lord’” John 20:1, 15-16, 18 (NRSV)

EASTER

The first Sunday, following the first full moon,

following the vernal equinox,

celebrated weekly

as the church gathers to sing praise

and open possibilities for

fresh new life

rolling away the stones of hindrance

with redeeming grace flowing profusely all about

EASTER

A way of life,

enriched through tradition,

made real with rituals of affirmation,

lived into fully as we peek

into the dark to find our light

hearing the voice of revelation

calling us beyond documented truth

into a world needing only to hear—

“MARY!”

EASTER

Sunday we shall rejoice,

“Up from the grave he Arose”

“He Lives”

as complete joy dances within our beings,

then Monday those songs will not be left behind

as we go forth announcing to one and all

‘We have seen the Lord’

and he is in us

playing melodies on our heart strings

EASTER, celebrated once a year, 52 Sundays a year, and daily, Jesus the Christ no longer locked into time and space, now calling our names day after day, now to listen. Jim Wilson

Note: Jim Wilson is a retired United Methodist minister with a close connection to PTS.

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